Categories for News

Nov 13

2017

Zemsky pressed on Buffalo Billion projects

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Howard Zemsky, the state’s economic development czar, told state Assembly members Monday that state officials are pushing IBM to create more high-tech jobs in Buffalo. “The kinds of jobs that we’re going to see at the IBM center are not going to continue to be call center jobs,” Zemsky said. The state pledged $55 million to renovate and equipment the six floors of Key Center’s south tower to lure IBM here on the promise of creating good-paying, high-tech jobs. But, as Investigative Post reported last week, many of the employees at the company’s office downtown work call center jobs for[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 7

2017

Testing to get the lead out

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The crisis in Flint, Mich., put a spotlight on the risks of lead in drinking water. The public water supplies in Buffalo and surrounding areas are not facing the same problems as Flint. Nonetheless, lead still poses a risk here because of our old infrastructure and housing stock. In fact, experts say there is always a risk of lead leaching into your tap water if you have a lead service line. Days after my story “Looking for lead (in all the wrong places)” in August 2016, I got calls from concerned Buffalo residents who wanted to know how they could[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 18

2017

Land owners sue over radioactive waste

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Twenty property owners in Niagara Falls, Lewiston and Grand Island have filed a lawsuit charging that three companies acted with gross recklessness by directly or indirectly disposing of radioactive wastes that they knew posed a danger to human health and the environment. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on behalf of 28 plaintiffs who own or share homes, businesses and vacant land in the affected communities. Investigative Post reported in July 2016 that government documents show the federal Department of Energy and state health and environmental officials have known for[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Sep 5

2017

Lawsuit alleges Buffalo police misconduct

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A coalition of community activists and attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Buffalo on Tuesday and sent a letter to State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman urging his civil rights division to investigative what they allege is a pattern of unconstitutional practices by the Buffalo Police Department against minority residents. Anjana Malhotra, co-author of the report and complaint, said her research uncovered a “pattern and practice of discriminatory and unconstitutional police practices.” “The fourth amendment guarantees to everyone equally that one has a right to be free of unreasonable seizures,” she said at a press conference Tuesday[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Aug 9

2017

Town to fence landfill with Love Canal legacy

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The Town of Wheatfield has finally picked a contractor to build a fence around a dangerous landfill that once held Love Canal waste and has long been used by residents for recreation. The process took over year and a half since town officials pledged to fence in the landfill.  New York State Fence will construct the fence for $106,800. Senator Robert Ortt secured the town $75,000 to offset some of the cost, in response to a Feb. 10, 2016, Investigative Post story. “It’s been a long haul,” Wheatfield Supervisor Robert Cliffe told the Niagara Gazette after the vote at Monday night’s town[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 23

2017

Spree magazine honors iPost reporting staff

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Buffalo’s best print reporters? The team at Investigative Post, according to Buffalo Spree magazine in its “best of” issue that just hit news stands. “Local reporting needs an occasional sharp edge; that edge is getting harder to find in WNY’s traditional media. That’s where Investigative Post steps in,” the magazine declares in its August issue. “The team, lead by former Buffalo News reporter Jim Heaney, produces its intensively researched stories on vital topics for various local outlets, including The Public, Buffalo’s weekly alternative paper. It is the only news organization in the area devoted to watchdog journalism.” Buffalo Spree, the[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 12

2017

Dispute over Wheatfield landfill test results

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The Department of Environmental Conservation on Tuesday said a toxic landfill in Wheatfield isn’t leaching chemicals onto nearby properties. But Michael Stag, a New Orleans attorney representing current and former residents in a lawsuit, contends that the state got it wrong. In addition, he warned state authorities more than a month ago that his testing found dangerous levels of chemicals inside homes, not the soil. In December 2015, the DEC deemed the landfill a significant risk to public health. The state designated it a Superfund site after removing 80-dump truck loads of Love Canal waste buried there in 1968. Some residents[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 5

2017

iPost reporting cited for excellence

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The New York State Associated Press Association has honored Investigative Post for its reporting on two environmental stories. The AP selected Looking for Lead  (in all the wrong places) as the best investigative television story for midsized markets. The three-story package documented Buffalo’s failure to test for lead in the drinking water of inner-city neighborhoods despite the prevalence of lead poisoning in children who live there.  The story aired in August 2016 and was co-produced with WGRZ. Another story, Decades Later, Love Canal Landfill Still Poses Risk, placed third in the investigative reporting category among midsized radio markets. The story, which[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post

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